What this world needs, but not what it deserves
by HunterXKiller87
Summary: First shield hero fic: what if it weren't Ren and Motoyasu who were summoned, but instead two others? Two VERY different Heroes with their own approaches to things? How will this world cope with the 'extreme' team leader and the 'extreme' solo player? lets find out!
1. Chapter 1

On a certain house, a man was playing a game.

He was quite huge by all proportions, at 1,90 meters tall and with a body with many muscles and scars one could tell at a glance he was not the peaceful type.

With his slightly tan skin, a buzz-cut black hair, and his green eyes he made for a striking appearance. However, despite that, he was just playing a game at this moment.

Emerald Online, the world's largest MMORPG at the moment.

The man's eyes were bloodshot as he was on his 45th hour of uninterrupted game as he and his guild were about to defeat a considered impossible raid quest. He was sending command after command, piercing through enemy after enemy as he continued crushing everyone in his path.

Finally, after much work and effort, he defeated the enemy.

With a war cry echoed in more than 450 other houses across the globe, they defeated the game.

He finally let his head drop back and relaxed his tense muscles. He thought back to his guild, he only started the game two years ago to pass time, after taking over most of the criminal underground work of the entire city and setting it to a less terrible path. It was less of a shit city now, crime still happened but still, worlds apart to how it was growing before.

Since he started the game he ended up deciding to make a guild as he liked to lead others, it came very naturally for him to be honest. His guild started small but as he never refused others and continuously beat seemingly impossible quest after impossible quest making his entire guild grow the results were that, before long, he was commanding the number one guild of the whole game with 60% of all top 100 players of the game being with him, him being the number one in the entire list.

Resting his head he was about to rest when he heard shouts from the outside. Moving quickly he took out his machine gun and got ready to deal with whatever may come his way.

He got ready to deal with anything, but he did not expect that his enemies would be too cowardly to try and kill him head-on. They instead blew up the house he was in.

Pain coursed through his being as he coughed blood after the explosion, injuries, and burns across his body as he laid underneath some rubble. Looking at the people that had done this to him he saw that they were gangsters of the neighboring town, probably not enjoying the fact that his reforms in the criminal underbelly on his city were starting to spread to other cities too.

He chuckled seeing this, before rolling his head back and laughing loudly. Those criminals stared in shock as he stood up again, he was clearly closer to death than to life but he still was standing now.

"All of you, if I am going to go down to hell I will first make sure you go first to cushion my fall!" He yelled as he moved, guns blazing as he entered his last fight, of this life that is.

* * *

Elsewhere on another world entirely...

"Hmph, easy..."

Surrounded by darkness in a dimly lit room, another young man, this one whom looked to be in his late teens, 19 at the latest, sat on his bed with his computer in his lap. Sounds of typing were the only sounds that dominated the room, their sources being the hands which moved like blurs over the wireless keyboard, a device of which he had inserted into the Laptop from its side port, one which also had a Mouse connected to it too. His bed, if one were to look from a bird's eye view, had been placed in the bottom left corner of a cube-shaped room, with a small wardrobe on the opposite wall to the left. on the wall in front of his bed, there lay a circular table which had a small TV on it, with a bench and a chair beside it that looked so much like a workstation one would see in a mechanic's room... although in this case, the bench had stacks upon stacks of books, each stack belonging to different genres.

The young man looked to be about 170cm tall, if he were to stand up straight, with almost ghostly pale skin color. His hair, as white as the purest of snow, remained unkempt and frizzy due to lack of care, whilst his dull grey eyes gazed almost blankly at the Laptop Screen before him, his lips set in a firm line. For clothing, the teen wore some simple clothes for once instead of his 'usual' attire, although hanging beside his bed on a coat hangar one could see his 'true' attire as clear as day. His simple clothes consisted of a dark hoodie with some baggy military pants, his feet being bare to the world, his hoodie's hood currently covering the majority of his hair whilst his ears got covered by some headphones, allowing him complete immersion into his gaming experience.

Silence remained his response as, after a while of gaming, the teen managed to beat yet another Raid Boss without much issue, having performed another one of his Solo Conquering exploits, causing him to nod to himself in satisfaction. 'A true Edgelord masters the art of being competent solo...' he thought to himself, almost as if chanting a mantra as he clicked off the recent MMORPG game called 'RAID: Shadow Legends', apparently some sort of popular gaming app for one's phone as well as a PC game. Though now, it'll be added to the... rather extensive list of games which he had completed alone, as the world's best Solo Player.

That title of his was NOT a bluff by the way, if one looked at his Steam Account, they'd seen an extensive list of different games he'd completed as a Solo Player, games such as MMO's like WOW, the Diablo Series, Starcraft Series, the Dark Souls Trilogy, its Demon Souls Prequel, various games similar to this formula like the Surge Series, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Code Vein, Darksiders series etc... essentially, he'd completed these games on their hardest difficulty without taking any deaths...

Even did no death run lets plays of them for YouTube.

Shizukana Kodoku: That was his real name, means Tranquil Solitude... pretty much described his entire life up till this point anyways.

As a Gamer, the label 'Solo Player' could be applied to him, and it'd still be an understatement of his loner-like ways. If one were to compare his behavior to that of an animal, then a Wolverine which can claim hundreds of miles worth of territory would be the best case. To him, gaming was an important part of his life, way more so than something meaningless like making friends or putting oneself out there for social purposes. Gaming had taught him many valuable lessons as he had grown up, from the start of his gaming sessions at a young age of 4 up till his current 19 years of age, these lessons stuck with him, as well as helped him garner the reputation of the best Solo Player out there... one who stayed away from official tournaments by the way.

Just thinking of entering official tournaments made the male want to puke, a look of brief disgust flashing over his face. Kodoku didn't fancy himself as a social person, hence his current way of playing Games, and as such he generally avoided those kinds of things. Whenever there were Raid Boss events on some of his favorite Games, then the gloves came off as he would make sure to prepare himself fully before going in and taking everything out by himself, before any other player could get the chance to do the same. It had been his MO for years now, and thanks to one time wiping out an entire Guild (after pretty much analysing everything about them from their habits, log in times, classes, etc like a freaking supercomputer) when one of them mocked his loner ways, he had his pride and joy that sparked much debate in the gaming community:

Ryūketsu no akuma kōtei: The Devil Emperor of Bloodshed.

Yeah, normal people would call that cringy, edgy, chuuni whatever...

He found it awesome, especially with how it helped him gain the vicious reputation he had currently in the gaming world.

Currently, Kodoku just finished another no death run of Dark Souls III, mostly for nostalgia's sake since he wanted to end his gaming session off light. Once he did so, the male stretched his arms up above his head after taking off his headphones and lowering his hood, letting his rather... masculine features out into the darkness that was his room. Well, it WAS night time currently so his parents were in bed, though he wasn't sure of the time. Checking out the time on his laptop, Kodoku saw that it was about 3 AM, causing him to momentarily gulp in surprise. '3 AM? Usually, I play from 8 till 5 AM... well, I did get my classes finished early, and it's not a school day so I'll be good...' he thought to himself after closing his Laptop and getting off his bed, putting his gaming equipment onto his Desk.

'Best get some shut-eye, mom might kill me for spending more time gaming than sleep today, especially since we're going to meet my aunt whose celebrating her 44th birthday today...' the male thought, furrowing his brows in dismay. He never liked celebrating anything social, not birthdays, not Christmas nothing, mostly because those events took away his gaming time, but since they were mandatory according to what his parents had told him, he had no other option but to go. Thus, with these thoughts bringing him out of his earlier gaming thrill, Kodoku made to head back to bed for some shut-eye...

SHATTER!

Until he heard the faint sound of glass being broken.

Surprise and concern filled his mind, as well as confusion. What was that? Why did he hear something like that just now? 'Ugh, I'm too tired for this...' The male soon thought as he felt the heaviness of fatigue on his shoulders. Still, if there was something wrong here, and his gut feeling told him there was, then he had to wake his parents up so they could get to safety. Them staying asleep (it had happened multiple times before, his parents can literally sleep through almost anything) when the house could literally be potentially threatened was NOT something which Kodoku wanted... not for what they've done for someone like him.

As such, after grabbing a torchlight that he had in one of his desks' draws, Kodoku proceeded to head outside his room to see what was going on...

Something which he did not realize would be his very last action in this world.

* * *

If either of these two men thought that this would be their end... well, they would be right.

Sort of.

Like one mummy movie said: death is only the beginning.

Four grown men appeared within a flash, first in the air as bright humanoid forms of light, until a few seconds later when they fell unceremoniously onto the ground with four loud THUD sounds. Their forms became human ones as light particles fell down upon them like rain, condensing around them and forming a series of weaponry.

"Guh!"  
"Gah!"  
"Urk!"  
"Grk!"

By the four sounds they made, each of the men got forcefully YANKED out of the unconscious land and into the land of the living, something which two of them found ESPECIALLY alarming as they spent a few seconds groveling on the floor from the sudden impact.

The first one to speak...

"The heck?! I know Fifty-Cent survived a bunch of bullets but how the hell am I still freaking alive?!" turned out to be the tallest one of the bunch, carrying a spear as he yelled out into their surroundings. He looked like he had gone through some hell too, with his clothes looking torn in multiple places, as well as looking riddled with holes formed from bullets too, adding to his previous claims. Didn't help that he only noticed the Spear in his hands after a few seconds of checking himself over for injuries, only to find none of them, adding to his own confusion.

This drew SEVERAL reactions from the other three:

The one with the bow fell onto his backside, looking up with wide, fearful eyes at the appearance of someone who clearly was not of the more 'law-abiding' type. The attire that he wore some sort of academy uniform, which didn't really help his case any and made him seem like one of those posh, rich boys who had only seen the bright side of the world, the exact OPPOSITE of the Spear user.

Second, the one with a sword, took only a couple seconds to comprehend this as his gaming instincts kicked in, which allowed him to dart his eyes around to scan their surroundings. It didn't take him long to notice that he had a sword attached to his person, one which looked like a typical fantasy-style sword he'd seen in almost every standard light novel ever, but other than that he found that they each stood within the center of what... looked like some sort of ritualistic circle, one similar to those satanic worshippers used to try and summon something. He figured this to be the case since he'd seen areas in Dungeon Raids which had stuff like this, and judging from the fact that they looked to be inside some sort of man-made chamber, the sword user assumed they were in some sort of building.

Finally, the one with a shield looked at him with wide eyes, not understanding a single thing about what was going on, or why this guy was so loud.

Just as all this stuff went down, shouts of exaltation could be heard from a corner of the room. Turning to look they saw a group of people wearing grey robes with yellowish outlines looking at them all with fervor. The sword user quickly noted in his mind, and he got the feeling the others did too (or rather, the one with the Spear did, he didn't get it himself why he just had that observant feel to him), that each of them had their hood up, the one who seemed to be at their head having his down likely to show that he wasn't a threat.

"Oh, Heroes! Please save our world!" They all said with passion whilst lowering their heads in front of them, but the immediate they got in return...

"No."

Came from the sword user himself, his eyes scrunching together slightly in annoyance as he got to his feet. He did look down at the sword at his feet in contemplation for a moment, before deciding to pick it up and keep it in a defensive posture that he'd seen in one of his games, all the while addressing the strange hooded people in this chamber. "I see no reason to do that. Especially since I don't know what is going on."

At first, every one of the hooded people looked stunned at his first answer, some looking like they lost their last lifeline or something like that, until the leader quickly realized something else from the second answer the sword user gave. Thinking about it, that response was actually only natural, especially since they were pretty much strangers, so why should they help without a good reason? Thus, he made to clarify for them, "There are many complications in this situation, but to offer a simple answer to your question, we have just completed an ancient ceremony and summoned you, four Heroes."

"Summoned?" The Shield user asked.

"Our world teeters on the brink of destruction. Heroes, please lend us your strength," said the robed man, bowing very deeply to the four young men with his companions.

At first, it looked like none of them looked to be particularly too fond of this idea, especially since it didn't really answer any of their questions regarding what was going on, not to mention two of them were still reeling from their recent... experiences, pretty traumatic ones actually.

All this changed though when, under a flash of inspiration, the leader of the robed men stood up tall and gestured to his followers to start piling out of the chamber in single file. When noticing this, the four men looked even more confused, until the leader addressed the situation at hand. "If you have any questions our king may be able to answer your doubts. Please, follow us."

"Yeah, yeah, we will follow you but I damn well hope you have some good booze! I just survived an explosion and at least 30 shots, so I damn well need some booze to celebrate that I am alive, HAHAHAHA!" The one carrying the spear said with a shit-eating grin on his face.

He saw how the others looked at him as if he was crazy for the first thing he demanded when he had just been summoned was booze, but he couldn't give less of a shit about it. He had just been gunned down, blown up, and stabbed a few times while taking at least 18 idiots with him, not to mention he did that while sleep deprived for more than 50 hours, so he damn well wants to celebrate that he is alive!

Once he yelled that out, the sword user recovered first from his temporary surprise, and then began shaking his head with a slight grunt escaping his lips, although nobody noticed. Great, a drinker, those guys were ALWAYS a particular annoyance that he had to deal with in his Gaming sessions, they usually fucked up the 'strategies' their parties employed due to their lower cognitive functions, and what was worse was that this guy sounded like he'd be a heavy drinker too, which did NOT bode well for his patience. The Sword User did believe that he had... more patience than average, but he also had a limit to how much BS he could take, why else would he prefer the solo player life after all these years? 'Glad this thing can stick to me though…' the male thought when he looked to his Sword. Apparently, when he had idly made to sheathe it like those one-handed swords he'd seen in that game Skyrim, his sword then stuck to his hip on its own like glue, a feature which could come VERY handy in the future.

Afterward, the group left to follow the robed people to wherever they would be taking them.

* * *

Whilst walking through the corridors, each of the four males took it upon themselves to look at everything that they passed by. The corridors seemed to share similarity to medieval European Castles, due to the stone floors, walls and ceilings surrounding them, with there being some instances where the stone got arranged into windows, which again looked similar to said Castles, allowing them to briefly look outside. This allowed them to briefly see the outside world, and any doubts the men had about this place being like their world quickly got doused... as well as doubts that some of them had about these people being satanic cult worshippers since it became clear that some people in high positions of power allowed this to happen.

'Hmmm... this so far seems like some typical fantasy world...' the sword user thought to himself, curiosity in his being as he spends the majority of the walk-in silence... all whilst the ones with the Shield and Bow simply looked around at everything like two children in a new environment. As for that Spear guy, he looked like he too was checking things out, but the sword user could tell just by looking into his eyes that he just wanted to do what he had said he would before: get drunk. Perhaps he considered that to be more important than gathering information? The sword user felt like this was the case, and it only irritated him inside even more. Sill, he remained composed since whatever he wanted to do was his business, and it had nothing to do with himself, so he would instead focus on more... productive things. 'If I'm correct, then the standard tropes that I saw in lots of fantasy games and stories will be applied, like Demon Kings, magic etc. They've already gotten the heroes and monsters tropes down so far...'

A while later, the men in robes soon stopped walking when they faced a tall, ornamental looking door, one which in accordance to traditional fantasy novels as well as the basic structure set up for medieval castles, meant this would be the entrance to something like a throne room. Something which got confirmed moments later when two robed men went up towards it upon a hand signal made by their leader, then pushed it open to allow the rest, as well as the four men, to head inside.

Upon doing so, they came face to face with a HUGE ass throne room, decorated with everything one might suspect there to be inside such a room. A single red carpet with gold outlines that lead to the two thrones at the centre, with portraits of various royal figures on the walls, ornamental and lavish curtains, the works.

Though soon, the four men got their attention hooked by the figure sitting on one of the Thrones, practically happened the exact SECOND they all laid eyes on him. The man had the form and posture of a leader, which combined with his aged appearance, the golden crown with a purple jewel in its centre, as well as his purple, cape and long black and white robes, quickly helped the men identify him as the so-called 'King' they had mentioned.

"My Liege, we have brought the Four Cardinals here, as we informed you of." The leader of the robed men mentioned, having walked up to the middle of the walkway and then kneeled before the King in reverence. At this point, it became known to the men that there were a whole bunch of people in the room, not just them, the King and the robed men, all assembled in a mighty looking crowd. Each of them looked to be a mix of people used to walking long distances due to their gear, as well as people under Nobility as seen thanks to their rich looking robes and ornaments.

The King nodded silently, and with a hand gesture, the Leader of the Robed men was ushered into the crowd, allowing the four summoned Men to step forwards.

"Speak your names heroes!" Declared the King in a loud, booming voice which reverberated throughout the entire throne room, as he threw a hand forwards in their direction in a grandiose, heavily dramatized fashion. Definitely had the presence of a commander down pat, so his ruling ability seemed legit so far. "So that we may know who the each of you are."

After his words were spoken, the sounds of footsteps resonated through the room, the cause of them being the spear hero. After a couple of steps, the tall male stopped moving and, after a moment of silence as he stared into the King's eyes... shouted out in a voice which matched if not exceeded the King's. "MY NAME? FOOLS, CLWAN YOUR EARS AND HEAR ME WELL AS I DETEST REPEATING MYSELF! I AM OUKY YUKI: LEADER OF THE OU GANG AND LEADER OF THE KNIGHTS OF BLOOD GUILD! I DEFEATED MULTIPLE FOES IN MY TIME, BOTH WITH MY MIND AND MY BODY! I AM 24 YEARS OLD AND IF THIS IS WHAT I'M THINKING IT IS, HERE'S WHAT I'M SAYING!" He took a moment to take a deep breath, meanwhile, everyone in the room nearly fell back from the force and might that his voice produced. It almost felt like a literal shockwave overturned everything in their vicinity, as the portraits and even the curtains fluttered about as an aftereffect of how loud he had been.

To say NOTHING about how the other three so-called 'Heroes' felt about the whole thing as they had been just as stunned as the rest of them, perhaps even more so.

Finally, he declared once more in that same voice, however compared to before his voice had even more of a blindsiding effect, nearly making people topple themselves over from the force. "WHAT IS YOUR DESIRE? FAME?! GLORY?! POWER TO PROTECT WHAT IS PRECIOUS TO YOU?! IF SO, THEN JOIN ME AS WE WILL SHOW THE WORLD WHAT WE'RE MADE OF! JOIN ME, AND I SWEAR TO YOU THAT WE WILL STAND PROUD, PROUD IN THAT WE MADE A DIFFERENCE, AND WE SHALL BE REMEMBERED AS THE TRULY GREAT!" He declared, fisting his chest where his heart, which should have been shredded by gunfire, lay.

All around him, the people whom listened to his speech felt their breath get stolen from them, used as fuel to fan the 'flames' which seemed to circle around the man before them. His eyes burned with the conviction and resolve one would have to see things through to the very end, one who walked their path with their head held high... it somewhat reminded them of the days when their King himself stood on the front lines, leading vast armies against the Kingdom's enemies. The sheer passion, the presence and the strength behind his demeanor and not just his words, it stirred the hearts of everyone present, making them feel like they could trust this man with their lives, that they would be able to follow him even into the infernal pits of hell themselves.

…

…

...

"Also, WHERE THE HELL IS MY BOOZE!?"

And just like that, everything vanished with those words, everyone nearly falling over when something so... outlandish in the silly sense came out of his mouth. After everything else, THAT was something he had followed up with? That had been something which appeared in everyone's thoughts, the King, the Three Heroes, and every spectator present. Yet, it didn't look like the male is known as Yuki would be any caring towards what they thought of him at this moment. No, not when the chance to celebrate cheating death the way he had was right at his freaking fingertips!

"A-Ah..." The first one to compose himself, as one would expect, turned out to be the King, who slowly returned to his usual position on the Throne he sat on and cleared his throat. "W-Well... quite an introduction there. Very well, after the interlocutions are cleared, I will have a Servant take you to our cellar." he declared, much to the tall man's glee. As long as he got to celebrate with a drink, he wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer, especially since he would be able to see who these other people were. Some of them, like those sword and shield guys, piqued his interest in their own ways after all.

Once everyone managed to recover, the second person to introduce himself stepped forwards...

and almost IMMEDIATELY the entire atmosphere changed.

"My name... you may call me Shizukana Kodoku, though I don't care if you forget about it..." began the Sword User as he cast his gaze across the spectators. His eyes caught sight of a lone red-haired woman who, according to his analyzing pf her features, resembled the King slightly so he felt she was his relative, a daughter or niece. Whatever the case, the instant he saw her he immediately didn't trust her, more so than many others here. She just had this... fakeness about her, but he instead opted to continue this tedious introduction thing instead of wallowing on THAT. He could do that later. "I am a Solo Act, I fight on my own, and I win on my own. Don't underestimate me, for many have done so in the past and they all regretted it, evident by my nickname: the Ryūketsu no Akuma kōtei, the Devil Emperor of Bloodshed."

The more he spoke, the colder the Throne Room became as it extinguished any lingering 'flames' from the Spear Hero's introduction like a barrel full of water. Not only that, but nobody even dared to breathe, as it felt almost like there were sharp blades just under their neck's, one small motion away from slitting their throats. This, combined with the icy, no-nonsense gaze and 'unhinged' aura the male generated, resulted in his appearance becoming HIGHLY intimidating. Almost as if they were in the presence of someone who would exterminate them all for even the slightest misdeed.

This went double for the three Heroes, where the Shield and Bow Heroes nearly wet themselves from sheer terror, the Spear Hero grinned excitedly to himself. As someone who lived in the criminal underworld, he wasn't intimidated by this guy in the slightest, only amused that he had sussed him out perfectly in his head. Looked like an Emo edgelord Solo Player in the making, and judging by how he handled himself it seemed there may be more bite to him than one might expect.

Right then and there, he too distinguished himself in their eyes, but in a much different way compared to Yuki.

Where Yuki resembled the flames of passion, Kodoku resembled the bone-chilling deathly grip of ice.

"I may be 19, but I am not afraid to kill, so if any of you think you can BS your way around me or try to boss me around like your superior, I will not hesitate to shred you to pieces. I have defeated many foes just like that loudmouth just now, those who were stronger than me, I beat with knowledge, and those who were smarter than me, I beat with strength. That is all." Now finished with his introduction, Kodoku took a few steps back, drew his sword (which caused several Guards to look in alarm, even a majority of the Nobles) and began to look it over, fiddling with it and proceeding to lose himself in seeing how it worked.

Up next once the effects of Kodoku's aura vanished, was the Bow hero. Said hero slowly but surely stepped forward, despite the mild level of embarrassment which he felt inside but hid from his facial expression as much as he could, trying to not show any inferiority before those two who clearly got way more attention than he did. Though, just remembering the effects those two had on not just him but the crowd as well REALLY made things difficult.

One thing DID help though, and that was the Sword Hero's lack of interest in the situation, made it slightly easier since he didn't have his icy gaze down his neck.

By the time that he had stepped forth the same amount as the others, the Bow Hero proceeded to try and speak using the calmest tone he could muster. "My majesty, my name is Itsuki Kawasumi. I am 17 and fresh out of highschool." That was all Itsuki could say, since unlike the previous two, he didn't have much he could say to his name. That revelation really made him want to hide himself away from the gazes aimed at him, but regardless the boy stood his ground.

Even so, he expected to be looked down upon, but instead, someone gave him a hearty slap to the back. "Come on, put some spirit into it! You are alive for fuck's sake, show off! Speak your mind and show everyone here who you are!" The Spear Hero proclaimed joyously with a wide grim that made the bow hero grimace and decide not to speak just to spite the spear hero. He reminded Itsuki way too much of the popular kids in class who were nice to everyone but were also a giant pain to deal with. Also, he looks like some of his bullies before and he was definitely not interested in getting along with anyone who reminds him of them.

Seeing that the bow hero was not speaking anymore Ouki shrugged. "Suit yourself, I guess you will let your actions show who you are." Ouki said as the king coughed to bring attention back to him.

The shield hero was about to walk forward when the king spoke up, addressing the three Heroes with a happy look on his face. "It is good to meet you all, Itsuki, Ouki, Kodoku. Now, as to why you are here-"

"Wait a sec." Ouki said, making the King groan.

"What?" The King questioned exasperatedly, not liking the fact he was being interrupted so much.

"You are forgetting the Shield Dude." Ouki said. "I don't know if this is your old age or whatever but I would rather know who I am working with." Ouki then turned to the Shield Hero and spoke. "Then? Who are you? What's your name and everything. I am in a festive mood so I am feeling like making friends, so how old are you? I need to know if you can drink or not since bowie here is too young and whitely there is too edgy to be fun to celebrate with." Ouki said, not carrying if he offended others or not.

A few twitches of the King's brow told everyone exactly what he felt about this situation, and just when he made to say something the cold, icy feeling from before returned in full force. It not only forced him to shut up, but was aimed SOLELY at him, and when he looked to the source he saw Kodoku's piercing gaze directed right into his own, as if DARING him to speak up against him. He would have done so if these were normal civilians, would have had them executed for such disrespect, but in this case, he feared that this Sword Hero, someone whose actually revered by him and his associates along with the Spear and Bow, would do well on his previous words. Thus, he relented and wordlessly gestured for the Shield Hero to speak.

"Ah, um..." Seeing as most of the attention now was focused on him, the Shield Hero began to speak, fumbling over his words at the beginning but eventually saying coherently. "I'm Naofumi Iwatani, and I'm a sophomore College Student. I'm 20 years old, and whilst I haven't really done much fighting, I do have a bit of experience virtually." The mention of this garnered the attention of the other three heroes at least, whilst the others remained apathetic and, dare he mention it, uncaring. Regardless, Naofumi then addressed the Spear Hero Ouki with a wide, positively radiant smile on his face. "Though I will say I'm a good drinker, though, so if you're drinking and inviting I wouldn't mind."

"BFT HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GREAT! SOMEONE WHO IS WILLING TO DRINK, PRECISELY WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!" Ouki quite happily shouted, proceeding to look like a fool whilst playfully smacking the Shield Hero on the back. Whilst Naofumi chuckled in amusement and slight pain thanks to those actions, he didn't necessarily mind too much. After all, as strong as he was the Spear Hero definitely showed himself as a fun individual to be around. He may have been loud, boisterous, spoke louder than anyone but despite it not being his intention he was already making everyone think of him positively despite him talking in a friendly manner to the Shield Hero.

After a while, his laughter calmed down, allowing things to proceed onwards. "Now then, I shall begin with an explanation." The king began to say, changing the subject. "This country, no, this whole world is on the brink of destruction!" Taking a pause after his loud declaration, the King glanced and saw all four paying attention, albeit with little reaction to his drama which mildly irritated him, but he kept a lid on that in favor of continuing to speak. "There exists a prophecy about the end of the world. Many waves of monsters would appear, and they would wash over the world, again and again, until nothing remains. Unless the waves were repelled and their accompanying calamities avoided, the world was certain to be doomed. The prophecy was from long ago, no one is certain of when it was said it would happen but it is certain that this prophecy was made and that across history other occasions of the waves happening are said to exist."

Here, he took a small breathe to regain the oxygen in his lungs before he could continue, unaware of the slight brow twitching two of the Heroes had begun to do. "In the beginning, the citizens of the land mocked the legends since most registers are untrustworthy at best and grossly exaggerated at worse. However, when the sands in the hourglass finished falling, a great calamity visited the land. A fissure appeared in the skies, a fissure to what we can only assume is another dimension. Terrifying and horrible creatures crawled out from it in great numbers. At the time, the country's knights and adventurers were able to repel the advance of the creatures after many sacrifices, but the next wave was prophesied to be even more terrible and it should arrive within three weeks. At this rate, the country was doomed, having no way to ward off the impending disaster. Considering the situation nearly hopeless, we decided to summon heroes from another world to follow the prophecy to save us all."

At this point the King looked at each Hero individually, his look hardening when he glanced at the Shield Hero for a brief second, before he finally finished with a heartfelt' plea for their help, thinking that he had convinced them. "Please, help us save this world. Only you four, the four cardinal heroes, can do it." The king proclaimed.

…

…

…

"...PFT, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..!"  
There was a huge silence before someone exploded in laughter.

... It was the spear hero.

Indignant shouts could be heard all over and, to silence them, the King beat his Cane against the ground to shut everyone up before glaring at the hero. "Mr. Ouki, care to explain why exactly you laugh at our predicament?" he questioned with a hard edge.

By the time this happened, the large male then suddenly stopped laughing, his body posture changing just as abruptly into something which threw everyone off, even the edgy Sword Hero. Incredulity. "Wait, you are not joking when you say you are in a predicament?" Ouki asked.

"Of course not. Why would you think we are joking at something of such grave importance?" The king said, he expected a quip or something but instead he received a glare as an answer.

"Why?! WHY?! AND YOU STILL HAVE THE GALL TO CALL YOURSELF A KING WHEN YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE HOW RIDICULOUS YOU SOUND?!" Ouki shouted, or rather he exploded with so much fury that he could put volcanic eruptions to shame. This reaction caused the King's face to begin to redden in anger at his insinuations. However, just when he made to respond, Ouki did what he did several times already today: cut him off before he could speak. "IF YOU HAVE THE TIME TO SUMMON US, WHY THE HELL DID I NOT SEE ANY PREPARATIONS BEING DONE IN THIS CASTLE?! NO GUARDS TRAINING, NO SIGNS OF PREPARATIONS BEING DONE, NO APPARENT SIGNS OF YOU ALL ACTUALLY TRYING YOUR BEST TO BEAT WHAT YOU YOURSELF JUST SAY MAY JUST BE THE END OF YOUR FREAKING WORLD!"

His words, heated as they were, felt more like vicious meteors slamming into the earth that was their logic, but oh boy was Ouki not done yet, no way in hell was he finished until he got EVERYTHING he wanted to say out the window. "WHAT? DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT MAKING YOUR ARMY STRONGER, ACTUALLY PREPARING FOR WHAT MAY BE COMING, WAS UNNECESSARY BECAUSE YOU CAN MAGICALLY GET SOMEONE TO SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS JUST LIKE THAT? IS THIS CITY READY IN CASE MONSTERS BEGAN ATTACKING IT? ARE THERE OTHER CITIES READY FOR THAT? DO YOUR CITIZENS HAVE ANY MEANS OF DEFENCE EXCEPT HOPE THAT THEY DO NOT DIE BY MONSTERS OR FAMINE WHEN THE CROPS ARE DESTROYED?! THAT IS SIMPLY PATHETIC! I MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A KING, BUT I DID COMMAND A GANG AND A GUILD AT THE SAME TIME, AND IN DOING SO I FOUND THAT PREPARATIONS ARE KEY, SO WHAT THE HELL KIND OF PREPARATIONS ARE YOU DOING TO NOT LET EVERYONE FUCKING DIE UNDER YOUR DAMNED WATCH?! HUH?! COME ON, WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU HAVE IN MIND TO MAKE SURE THE WORLD IS NOT DESTROYED?! I MEAN, IF YOU NEEDED ONE WAVE TO HAPPEN AND LIKELY KILL WHO KNOWS HOW MANY PEOPLE FOR YOUT O GER OUT OF YOUR ASS AND WORK, AND EVEN THEN YOUR INTENTIONS ARE TO SIMPLY GET FREAKING PROBLEM SOLVERS, THEN YOU EITHER HAVE SOME OTHER PREPARATIONS BEING DONE SOMEWHERE OR YOU ARE GROSSLY INCOMPETENT AND UNFIT TO COMMAND!"

By the time that he was finished, Ouki looked to be breathing heavily from his rage-filled rant, his heavy breathing releasing tuffs of air from his lungs whilst he felt a bit hotter than normal, although this didn't really matter as much to him since he had more important things to be concerned about.

After a few breaths, it soon occurred to the tall man that he had perhaps spoken a bit more than he needed to. Calming down from his previous ranting moment, the big man straightened his back and proceeded to at least give an explanation on why he had acted like this, not as if he cared about how they feared him though. It mostly had to do "Sorry for the outburst, I do not deal well with people in power that misuse it. The cops back in my city were like that and, well, it was not pretty." Ouki admitted while calming down, and seeing as how the atmosphere around the Throne Room wasn't so suffocating no more, people could not help the relieved sighs that escaped them.

Seeing that he now was calm the king coughed in his hand and motioned for them to be taken to their room. There would be adventurers selected by the king the next day to help them in their journeys.

Something which did NOT go all that well with a certain someone.

'Tch, annoyances... no way will I let any party with me, I'm a Solo Player through and through...' Kodoku thought in irritation, his fists twitching since he had attached his sword to his hip. He didn't think that things would be ending very well for him tomorrow, with his brain already conjuring images of potential fights with the Castle Guards. Thanks to him getting a decent feel of his sword whilst listening to those talks, Kodoku felt... somewhat confident that he would be able to at least escape the Castle, though if he were forced to fight directly that would be another issue. After all, not only was this his first time holding an actual weapon, but it was also the first time he actually fought against something in real life.

The one time he DID have to fight someone...

'Stop, don't think about that right now, maybe later when your alone and more secure, otherwise people might think you'll show weakness...' instantly recognizing that his thoughts and feelings were, Kodoku madly shook his head to clear them from his mind. He didn't need to think about that stuff right now, he was still here alive and well and... not actually dead.

In any case, while moving out the sword hero moved a bit to the side as he pulled out a small rock from his pocket. He intended to use it to try an experiment with his sword at his hip, something he got inspired when, upon the rock nearing the Sword's jewel, Kodoku noticed a faint suction sensation. Of course he'd pulled back before it could get nay stronger, but right now he wanted to test this out whilst nobody was looking. see what the deal was. To that end, held the rock close to the sword's Jewel, his eyes intense as he awaited the result... for the rock to suddenly get sucked inside the Jewel the exact SECOND it touched the jewel.

For a moment, his eyes widened slightly in surprise at both the sudden loss of weight in his hand, and then the thing that followed:

* * *

_Granite Sword - Unlocked_  
_Rarity (Normal)_  
_Atk - +3_  
_Def - +1_

* * *

… What looked like a holographic screen one might see in some sort of futuristic city suddenly appeared over the sword with those details written on it. Furthermore, the sword itself turned into one similar to its base form in shape, but made from the same material that the Rock had been made from. 'Holy... what the hell? This Sword, it... it just absorbed that rock!' the male thought in awe at this discovery just as the screen vanished and the sword returned to its default form. 'Okay... Okay, just calm down Kodoku, and think. You're going to be the edgiest Solo Player ever, so you can't let people see you lose your cool like this. You're better than this...' he thought further, proceeding to calm down afterward as he began pondering on this new discovery throughout the rest of the journey to the rooms.

* * *

Getting into the rooms it was to the sight of multiple bottles of wine prepared and ready for the spear hero.

The guard that took it there expected him to show appreciation for it, after all, he was complaining about alcohol basically since he got in here. However, Ouki looked at the wine, delicately took one bottle in his hand, and threw it at the wall. "The fuck is wrong with you all?! I said I want booze, not some fancy little shits! If I wanted to drink fancy stuff I would say so. I asked for BOOZE! You Know what? Forget it, just point me to where I can buy some and I will go to a bar or whatever." Ouki said.

The guard protested, he was under orders to not let the heroes go just like that, but instead of getting the expected result the guard felt immense pressure as Ouki stood before him. His impressive build and appearance added to his natural aura made the guard unable to stop Ouki as he just pointed at where the exit of the castle was.

Grinning like a fool, the oppressive aura vanishing completely, Ouki left with a happy go lucky smile.

The guard did not give him any money, but Ouki didn't much mind it as he stole it from the guard when he was passing him by just as he stole some of the fancy jewelry that was being used as decorations in the castle.

'If I am going to save these people then I will damn well get some extras out of it!' Ouki thought, leaving the other heroes stunned that the spear hero just up and left. Well, not really left as a few seconds later he popped his head back on the room, looked around, and stretched a hand to pull Naofumi with him. "Come, tonight we celebrate life!"

* * *

After moving for a while Naofumi could not help but think that this is amazing. Ouki had pretty much waltzed out of the castle despite the guards all around, all giving way of him.

Moving across the city the two walked, Ouki did not speak much until he got to a bar and walked straight to the bartender, he then took out some fancy-looking silver forks, spoons, and knives. They all were more works of art than anything else but the spear hero did not mind it. "How much booze can you get me and my friend for these?" He asked.

The bartender, used to thieves doing similar things, ignored the fact that these were definetly stolen items. He examined them for a bit before speaking. "I can get you both enough for the night... if you can eat one of these that is." He said as he pushed forward a jar filled with strange fruits. Ouki looked at them suspiciously but shrugged, he wanted to celebrate life so doing something reckless was in order.

He took one of those fruits and popped it in his mouth. Instantly he felt a great rush and could sense he became slightly tipsy, which meant a lot for him since normally he could drink through an entire two days and nights before he got to this stage. "This is some good shit! Old Man, get me some booze and snacks now, would you!" He said as he turned to Naofumi just to see the Shield Hero eating those fruits in bulk without any difficulty.

Ouki's eyes widened, his lips opened in a large smile as he laughed. "My man! You have to have a liver of freaking steel! I like you alright."

Hearing his laughter prompted a small chuckle out of the Shield Hero. Naofumi smiled sheepishly at the Spear Hero, rubbing the back of his head after swallowing what remained of his latest fruit. "Heh, told you I could hold my liquor. Though, in all fairness I never had the chance to go out drinking too many times, not with others at least." he admitted, recalling how... strict, his parents had been about being a responsible adult to him before they'd allowed him to remain at home with an allowance, mostly due to how he'd met their expectations and had his life together.

"Hey, now that IS good!" Ouki exclaimed as he patted Naofumi on the back, grinning broadly which prompted another smile out of the younger man. The two men sat together at a bar-like table on their Stools, chatting about like two old seasoned war veterans, or something along those lines due to the vibes of companionship that they gave off. "You can drink even better than the other one, the second Great Heaven! If you are anything like him, then I am sure we can get along just great." Ouki said, making Naofumi raise an eyebrow.

"Great Heaven? What is this all about?" He asked.

Now, THIS got the older man's attention, enough for him to lose his dumb drunkass look in favor for a more confused, if not befuddled one. "What? Don't you know of the Three Great Heavens of the Knights of the Blood?" He questioned, looking at his pseudo drinking partner like he had grown a second head or something along those lines. He did this all whilst keeping his drink on the table, longer than a few seconds at least which pretty much broke the record he had for keeping himself from drinking into a stupor. "We were very famous amongst players, how come you never heard of us?"

"Sorry, I really haven't heard of any of this." Naofumi admitted sheepishly.

Ouki put a hand to his chin and started to think about that, his guild was extremely famous and the game of Emerald Online was equally famous. To never have heard of it one would need to not enter a PC at all, and possibly never watch TV since many of the Guild Wars were watched in the television as if sports. 'Hmmm... interesting, if that's the case... ah, perhaps THAT could be why, as unreasonable and illogical as it sounds. Bah, all this shit's been out of our logic for some time now, so what else should be so surprising?' he mused internally, but just to be sure he needed to ask Naofumi a confirming question. "Hey, tell me, what is the name of the prime minister?"

"It is Shiguchi Zabuki, why?" Naofumi answered, rubbing his head whilst taking another shot of his fruit. The question itself threw him off sure, but knowing what this guy was actually like, aside from being a heavy drinker, he believed that this guy had some sort of idea or plan in mind. One that had hinged on his answer.

Hearing this Ouki got to his conclusion. "Yep, we are all from different worlds, or rather seems that we came from alternate versions of the same world." Ouki said before shrugging. "Not that it makes much of a difference, but just for curiosity was there any game you played that relates with this world? I mean, it seems pretty similar to Emerald Online to me but who knows." Ouki was the first to admit, the moment you believe yourself infallible is likely the moment you will lose. He had just confirmed that he and Naofumi came from different worlds so perhaps Naofumi's system might be unlike his own.

"Sorry, never much of a gamer myself. But I do find this world somewhat similar to a book I was reading before being sent here." Naofumi admitted.

Whelp, that explained a few things about this guy then, Ouki mused in his mind, like how his family must have been one why he seemed so much more... normal, compared to the rest of the summoned Heroes. Ouki was of the opinion that the deeper an otaku was into the culture, the more... weird, the habits they develop. Plus, the kid looked like he had his head on straight, so he likely didn't do any shady business, probably didn't need to. Lest he remained likable, judging by what he'd seen so far. "Oho, why not tell me more of it, then? It may prove useful." Ouki queried with interest, and Naofumi explained what he knew. Admitedly, it wasn't much, but the mention of a woman that would sow trouble and betray each of the four heroes was more than enough for Ouki to see that he should be careful with women that were bad news.

Their conversation continued like this for the rest of the day...

Smirking to himself he could only think that if this person really was out there she was lucky that the third Great Heaven was not around. That woman was beyond scary when she found cheaters or other females who try and disrupt things using their looks.

Just remembering her reaction to the betrayal of one of the core members of the guild that moved to another while stealing information from us, it gives Ouki chills just to think about this. The Third Heaven might have died, much like the Second Heaven, but they were just as good gamers as Ouki was, at the very least.

"Hey, how about we exchange some information about how our weapons work? I mean, we are from different Earths so maybe our weapons work differently and, if so, maybe we could copy one another." Ouki said. "Finding loopholes is essential to getting stronger, after all."

"... Okay, but I do not know anything about this you mentioned about how our weapons work." Naofumi said and Ouki nodded his head.

"Understandable, but easily fixed. Check on your menu the Help Menu, there you probably will find the details regarding your weapon." Ouki said, thus starting an exchange of information with Naofumi about weapon's enhancement methods.

* * *

Elsewhere...

With the dominance of night and day sliding to the former, one Kodoku lay back-first with his gaze looking upwards and his hands behind his head, upon the... rather lavish bed which had been assigned to him for the duration of his stay in the Castle. The night could be seen outside the window of his Guest Room, allowing him a rather... nice view of the many stars in the skies. If he were in a comfortable setting, then he likely would have gone outside for some stargazing, or perhaps even went out to do some exploring/scouting for additional information. As a Solo Player, he was used to doing such things on his own, gathering information about a Quest so he could develop the optimal strategy to take it down whilst incurring the least amount of damage. This approach had been something that he'd used to take on entire Raid Dungeons at first, but then he'd apply it to the generic quests as well just to be on the side of caution.

One can NEVER be too overly cautious after all, an example being that one hero who ALWAYS kept double checking things for even the tiniest of inconsistencies.

However, since it had been said that till tomorrow there wouldn't be anyone allowed outside the Castle, likely so that they knew where everyone was for the (and he shuddered at this next bit) party selection, he couldn't do as much as he had wanted. There were SO many things that he had wanted to experiment with, regarding this fantasy-like sword he had on his chest. Speaking of his body, his clothes had been shifted into a set of nightwear provided to him by the Castle maids, with his regular clothes hanging on a rack nearby... though if he were honest, Kodoku wanted to at LEAST look the part of what kind of archetype that he aspired to be both in game and in real life. That would be the FIRST thing he did, if anything.

With a glance down at his chest, Kodoku grasped the sword's hilt and held it in front of his gaze, allowing the light shining through the windows to illuminate the weapon. Now that he got a good look at it, Kodoku examined the weapon thoroughly: a set of angel wings forming a hilt, a blue jewel in its center, a double-edged blade leading to a V-shaped tip... not a traditional sword by any means, according to his knowledge of different sword types. 'This sword... earlier, it absorbed a piece of material and formed a new version of itself from what I saw...' he thought, mentally commanding it to shift into the [Granite Sword] that he had discovered was possible recently, which resulted in the sword taking the form of one similar to its base form, but slightly shorter AND made from Granite entirely... save for the blue jewel, that stayed the same. 'So far, I'm aware that this blade can shapeshift depending on the materials it has absorbed. This can open up some... interesting options depending on the situation at hand, furthermore, no matter how far we are separated, the sword returns to me, though I can switch its position depending on my preference. I don't play too many Net Games, but this DOES feel similar to an MMO kind of world...'

Although if he were frank, Kodoku felt that if he were to apply too much game knowledge in this world, then he may miss some important details, so he held back on THAT assumption until he could garner more information.

Furthermore, he did NOT like anyone in this Castle, especially the King as well as that bitchy looking Princess. He didn't know why, but the moment he had seen her, he had the urge to yell out 'BEGONE, THOT!' instantly... and those kinds of things were usually reserved for pretty much anyone who he didn't like... which was usually most people. What that drunk had mentioned about the King's incompetence... Kodoku didn't think much of it was unwarranted nor wrong, so many things he analyzed right now instead of before due to the chaotic situation made Kodoku want to get away from this Capital as soon as possible. However, he'd withhold judgment for the time being... again, until he got more information.

If there was ANYTHING his Solo Player Lifestyle taught him, it was the value of knowledge and resources. Those two things made his lifestyle OH so much easier, and it had been a bitch to learn them.

'Now then, better get some rest... I have a LOT of annoyances to deal with before I am able to leave this Castle and gather what I need...' Kodoku thought, huffing as he closed his eyes and lost himself into slumber.

* * *

**Chapter end**

**Hello, this is hunterxkiller87, writing his first ever shield hero fic. For anyone who don't know, I helped another Shield Hero writer King Carlos with some of his shield hero fics, and in this fic's case we're co-writing it. So if you like this story and his writing style, check his stuff out, he's got way more than me after all. **

**Anyways, whilst he's the veteran of the two of us for this series, this is my first time writing for shield hero. Opinions and recommendations would be really appreciated. **

**Hope you like this.**

**Peace Out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The following morning couldn't have come any later, but it did and as such, each of the Four Heroes woke up and were informed through a single Palace Maid each that they would be summoned to the Throne Room in 10 minutes time, where they would be able to choose their own party members for their future fights against the Waves.

Not something Kodoku felt particularly too fond over when her first heard it whilst getting dressed in his normal clothes, a visible scowl on his features. He had his Sword strapped to his hip after having changed into his trousers, a rather tedious affair since the weapon took about 2 seconds or so before magically appearing there, much to his annoyance till he figured out how to move it to his back. THEN he had to get used to shifting his weapon's position on his body so that he could get changed proper, a skill he felt would become quite necessary eventually. 'Still, compared to achieving my objectives for today, this or the annoying sun will not be anything that will deter me.' he thought to himself, a determined blaze filling his gaze as he went over his plans for the morning whilst finalising his routine.

Thanks to the Maid leaving after the notification as well as telling him that, afterwards, he would be allowed to leave the Castle to wander around town, the male had a few goals already planned in mind for his morning time. With the small funds which had been provided to him (and likely the other Heroes too, though he bet that the drunkard Spear Hero had already wasted his) after they had been ushered here, he should be able to at least afford a change of clothes and a small meal. He'd have to check out the currency system first and see how that would go, but that would be his top priority for the moment.

The second priority he had, would be finding possible places where he could gather information about various topics, topics such as problems individual villages were facing (hey this was a KINGDOM under assault from monsters, so there were bound to be some), enemies he would be fighting as well as their habits, and anything else he could use to his advantage, as well as more info about this world. One of the things he had to do as a Solo Player, was manage two things: his resources as well as the information on what he would be facing, something which he had relied a lot on videogame guides back in his world, something which he likely wouldn't be able to do here. For games like Monster Hunter, he always memorized where specific items were and what elemental weaknesses certain creatures had possessed, making the use of each tool he could to his advantage to win his battles... something which had become increasingly important the more he played those types of games.

'Then, there's the theory I came up with regarding this world...' Kodoku thought as he finished putting on the upper portions of his attire, made sure his Sword was strapped to his hip securely, and then proceeded to head out of his room to try and track down some Maids for questioning. 'This world... it sounds like a traditional fantasy world for Isekai Web/Light Novels, but it is a real world nonetheless. Perhaps, it really IS so but with Game-like elements, since I discovered a Stat, equipment, party and help menus one would see in Net Games last night. I'll need to confirm whether or not this is truly so, cause if I can predict the others' actions, then it will likely be that Bow Hero who will think of this as a Game too much, whilst I'm not so sure about that Shield Hero. That Spear Drunk however, he DEFINITELY won't see it as such, he seems too much like an army commander to do otherwise, especially given his rant yesterday...'

Perhaps he could find some libraries or books scattered about as well in case he wanted more concrete information, which would definitely become necessary in the near future. Odds were, he would have to look on both the official... and the not so official side of things, such as the black market and stuff, since if he believed the King to be as competent as he thought, then the black market maybe much more expansive and dominant than one might expect.

However, that priority came second...

Compared to looking like a badass edgelord, little else was of relevant!

* * *

Later, the Four Heroes assembled in the Throne Room once more... although SOME of them looked a bit more roughed up than the others. Both Kotoku and Itsuki looked fine enough, essentially looking clean and presentable. Nothing looked to be wrong with them in terms of appearance... however the Shield and Spear Heros turned out to be a different matter altogether. Naofumi for starters, looked like a young child embarrassed by his peers at school, with his hand behind his scratched up head. His clothes looked to be all ruffled too, with there being various stains of... questionable origin behind them, the last noteworthy thing being that his scent smelled oddly like a putrid mix of alcohol, and garbage. Not a pleasant smell to be sure, which was why people stayed clear of him as much as possible... that, and perhaps the Shield he wore had something to do with it due to how they glared at it like it were the plague personified.

Similar things could be said about Ouki… thing was though, he looked like he didn't give a damn, only smiled that uncaring smile of his.

'What happened there...?'

Both the Sword and Bow Hero's questioned that in their minds, although they didn't wait too long for an answer thanks to Ouki providing said answer himself without looking in their general direction. "HAHAHAHA, MAN, THAT DRINKING SESSION REALLY HIT THE SPOT! BEST NIGHT OUT I HAD SO FAR!" he proclaimed, patting a nervously chuckling Naofumi on his back like they were best bros. "THANKS FOR COMIN' ALONG, LITTL' BRO! MADE THE DRINKING MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE!"

"Hehehe... shame that we accidentally spent all that money, which resulted in us sleeping in an alley for the night..." Naofumi responded, pretty much summarizing everything that they had went through last night. Boy did he get a surprise when he had woken up in the middle of an alley with Ouki right beside him, not to mention the guy had a HUGE ass bottle of alcohol with him that e had clutched to his chest like it were a stuffed animal he took to bed with him. The 20 year old otaku didn't want to think about where that thing was now, though, and would rather let it remain a mystery.

Before things could continue with the Four Heroes, the King cleared throat to gain their attention, something which worked although due to the residual effects of the alcohol Ouki looked a bit more... unfocused, than usual. Good, the King mused, hopefully that would make him more obedient as he should be. Thus, the man proceeded to speak. "Heroes, we have gathered today to discuss your Party arrangements." he declared, gesturing to the crowd of people (whom looked more like adventurers than Nobles, now that Kodoku and Ouki noticed)

They were quite varied but to the eyes of the spear hero few showed any sign of actually wanting to help. He has met many people in his life and saw many who entered his gang, he could tell with a glance when someone really could become loyal and useful or if the person would stab him in the back at the first opportunity. It is not perfect, he knows that, but he trusts his instincts well enough.

As for Kodoku, he honestly just wanted to leave already. He did not wish for a party to ruin his style and he'd rather be on his way to get some weapons and start monster hunting and grinding. Itsuki was almost glowing at the prospect of being chosen, as he fully believed he should well be. He was a hero, and as such deserves only the very best. Naofumi, well he was honestly tired and wanted to go and find a bed somewhere to sleep in. He and Ouki went to 'sleep' when it was almost morning and he was not used by any means to party so much.

"Now then, gathered adventurers, please choose the Legendary Hero with whom you will travel with."

'Wait, So THEY got to choose?' Were the words in the heads of Itsuki, Ouki, and Naofumi. Kudoku couldn't give less of a s*** about it, though, since he did not want any of them whatsoever.

The people began to move.

Three went behind Kudoku, four went behind Itsuki, and five behind Ouki.

"Wha?! How come, this cannot be right! I did not get anyone? WHY?" Naofumi almost shouted in despair. He was a shield hero, he had no attack power so how was he to fight without anyone to dish out damage.

"You can take mine, I don't do teams." Kudoku said, making the three behind him fidget and move to Itsuki and Ouki. Kudoku actually smiled at that one, not wanting people to disturb his style.

Ouki, meanwhile, looked at his team after having the added members of Kudoku's part.

"You, you, and you. I welcome the four of you, the rest can go somewhere else. I have no desire for those who have eyes like yours, eyes of those whose loyalty could change with the win." Kudoku said after pointing out three people. They were one male with a long white robe and with circular glasses, a small mage girl who looks too petite for her own good, and a male with simple leather armor and red hair carrying a black bow.

That shocked most people who thought Ouki would take as many as he can, but that was far from the truth. If he were to take just anyone with him things would definetly not work well before long, instead he would only take those he was confident he could at least trust.

Skills were not as important as trust in his eyes.

Clearing his throat once more, the King looked at the party roster, noticing that out of the four Heroes, the Shield Hero had only one party member, something which irritated him inside since he didn't want him to have anyone on his side, but it would have to do for the time being, hence he just opted to continue the meeting. Worse was the fact that his own daughter Malty had been the one to join the Shield Hero, though on the up side he knew she wouldn't be taken advantage of by anyone, no it likely would end up being the opposite way around. "Now then, since the heroes have their Party members sorted, we shall-"

"NOW WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE!"

Before he could speak, Ouki howled out in fury as he stepped forwards, ignoring the glares aimed his way by those on the King's side as he pointed a finger towards Naofumi and Malty. "NOW THIS IS STRAIGHT UP BULLSHIT, WHY THE HECK DOES THE SHIELD BRO HAVE SO FEW FOLLOWERS?! HE NEEDS WAY MORE THAN JUST ONE FUCKING PERSON, A PERSON WHO MIND YOU LOOKS LIKE SHE'LL BE JACK SHIT IN TERMS OF HELP AND LOYALTY, OTHERWISE HOW CAN HE AS EFFECTIVE AS HE SHOULD BE!?" Ouki declared, thinking back to his many Guild Wars and how useful Tanks had been for his forces. Depending on how they were used, Tan guys could be pretty beastly on the battlefield, so seeing Naofumi who had such options in his future be treated like this REALLY and ROYALLY pissed off.

Well, there are few other options available, Spear Hero." The King responded bluntly, trying to make his tone as neutral as possible to hide the smug sense of satisfaction slowly creeping its way through at the sight of his people 'dutifully' following their ruler's ideals. "Its not like anyone chose to follow him, so I'm afraid that there's-"

Before he could continue, a now much calmer Ouki stopped him by doing the 'tch-tch-tch' sound whilst waving his index finger from side to side... it DEFINITELY succeeded in twitching a few brows. "See, that's where your wrong 'your majesty'." he stated, making quotation marks on the last part whilst his gaze dripped with sarcasm like an overflowing waterfall. "We do have ONE option available to us: and that's to use any of the captured Criminals, and before you try to lynch me, think of it like this: With them being captured, and according to some reliable sources..." This had happened when he had been at the Tavern, as although he had been drunk off his ass near the end, it had mostly been a ploy so that he could listen to the people's comments before they could be officially 'silenced' by the royalty. One can glean a TRUCK load of useful information this way, and it had been one of his favourite recon methods. Relaxation, socializing and work being done all at once, what's not to love about that? "They would have been punished with Execution anyways. Therefore, have them turned into Slaves for Naofumi to command, and we have a small party already, and its not like they would be able to cause too much trouble. They'd be Slaves, so Naofumi can keep them in line, plus if they're competent and since your 'dire situation' made you all yank our asses over here, you pretty much need to take these measures." he explained, smirking in victory when he saw how unamused the King seemed but tried to hide.

What, he'd done SOME research on this place despite looking like a total loon, and nobody was any of the wiser. Another thing of note (something which he'd brought up before the apparent King's daughter could speak when he saw her about to) was that he'd heard from his research that there were a few 'disgraced knights' among the Criminals, trained ones who knew about combat, tactics etc. Having them on their side saving the kingdom would DEFINITELY be a boob here. Plus, seeing as how some of the Nobles actually looked like they were pandering this idea, it showed that it indeed had merit as they weighed the pros and cons of his solution.

As for the other three Heroes...

Naofumi, well he looked the most nervous out of the bunch, and a bit squeamish too as he took a gulp whilst trying to restrain himself from talking in this situation. Not like anyone could blame him since Slavery in his country wasn't really looked favourably from, if anything it was the exact opposite. However, after spending time with Ouki and coming to learn about his mannerisms, he could start to see the man's logic. They were Criminals on what the otaku would have called death row anyways, so they'd likely jump at the chance to escape punishment, not to mention in the Shield Hero's eyes working for a company, the military etc was basically a form of slave system anyways, just more official and 'humane' with the 'slaves' getting something out of it other than their life, no matter how small.

Over on his side, Itsuki thoughtfully hummed as he assumed a detective-like pose, mauling over the idea with a look of discomfort and perplexity. For one, the guy didn't like Slavery one bit, he frowned upon and abhorred it not just for moral-based reasons, but because it reminded him of how his bullies treated him back in school. However, since these guys were Criminals with death as their only alternative, he didn't see much problem in utilizing them this way. Plus, if things go well on the Shield Hero's side then perhaps he could have some Slaves of his own so that he could be seen as a hero in the eyes of others, a hero for reforming the corrupt members of society that is.

'Well I'll be... THAT's what the drunk's getting at...' Kodoku thought as he but a hand over his mouth in a similar way to Itsuki, only his hid the smirk creeping onto his lips as the well-oiled gears inside his head rapidly rotated. The more he processed Ouki's logic, the more he began to see the picture here. 'Not only is he improving the Shield Hero's chances of being effective, he is also blatantly yet intellectually stifling the apparent prejudice against the Shield Hero that these guys apparently have.' It had become official in the Sword Hero's mind after eyeing everyone's expressions that had shifted continuously throughout this conversation, one time he'd caught the King eyeing his daughter who responded with a similarly conniving look too, that the Shield Hero had a LOT of enemies against him for seemingly no apparent reason.

Hell, he figured that her reason for posing as an adventurer due to her outfit choice to go along with the Shield Hero had to be a ploy, though not a very good one for multiple reasons. One: Her demeanour may LOOK kind and caring, but there were subtle tells that gave her away in his opinion, like how she'd idly glance at her nails with her face minutely scrunching in revulsion, like she didn't like something about her getup. That kind of thing came from those who were used to times of peace and he'd seen MANY a girl gamers complain about that stuff on their streaming platforms that he'd watch for research purposes (no not THAT kind perverts, he had way more self respect than to watch them just for that), heck he'd seen his mom do it a few times way back when. Two: the way she walked did NOT convey the experience of a competent adventurer, but rather someone used to politics, someone who lived the court life. Kodoku could tell the difference due to learning how to identify people based on their classes in the few net games that he did play, whilst in his usual games it was to define which type of enemy he would be facing.

He'd already mentioned that he had seen her as a princess, and that had been due to keeping an eye out and noticing picture frames on some of the corridor walls portraying her youth and current appearance next to what he could only have assumed to be her parents, the king and queen, as well as a young girl too. Though he couldn't for the life of him see if she were here or not, so either she wasn't involved (which he found HIGHLY suspicious since, as a member of royalty, she should be at least INVOLVED) or she had other things to attend to, though the exact nature of these things was still up for debate here.

Therefore, out of interest and as a way to generally screw those guys over, Kodoku spoke up after removing his hand and keeping his expression neutral. "There's another benefit to this arrangement." he began, getting everyone's attention. "You all want this thing called 'justice' against these Waves right? To eliminate them and survive, then this option kills two birds with one stone. You both get to 'reform' some 'Criminals' in the sake of justice, and easily obtain valuable subordinates for the attacks."

Each of the onlookers glanced at one another, murmurs of the potential this idea had rushing through the Throne Room like blood cells in a vein. At that point, both the King and Malty (who shared another look that the two Heroes caught) had realized the 'defeat' they'd suffered in this metaphorical battle between the two opposing sides by the smooth intrusion of the third party, known as the Sword Hero... and for some reason, it felt WAY more satisfying to watch this then one might expect.

Although both Heroes got the feeling that this wouldn't be over, not by a long shot.

* * *

"Now, here is the start funds we have prepared for you all. We were thinking on sending each of you with 600 silvers but after contemplating we decided that our heroes deserve better so we will give each of you 100 golden coins! It should be more than enough for the begining of your adventures." The king said, grumbling inside that he had to spend more money than he wanted on this.

He would have given them the 600 silvers which is equivalent to 6 gold coins, but he just knew that Ouki would complain and make the nobility actually agree with him on this. The king have already heard from the shadows that some of his supporters were already doubting him after Ouki's speach the day before about the inadequacy of the king for taking care of things in this time of crisis.

The king didn't much care for the hero's opinion, they were just a convenient tool in his eyes, but the spear hero had pointed out the king's faults and the nobles smelled blood from there.

"Now, go and save our world!" The king proclaimed, happy to see himself free of the spear hero's opinions and the mere presence of the Shield Hero.

However, much to Kudoku's amusement as he understood what was going on, the Spear Hero spoke up again.

"My King, I must ask first where is the Treasury of the castle." Ouki asked, making the king's face go red in anger.

"And WHAT would you want with it?!" The king practically hissed his question.

"But of course, to see if there is any suitable armor and equipment for me and the other heroes." The king was about to object but Ouki spoke before he could. "The funds given surely can help us heroes to start our journey, but if we are to do us the most possible in helping this world then it stands to reason that the Royal Family would help us to the best of your abilities. Matterials for out weapons and armors and weapons that are only accumulating dust should be put to use now in this moment of crisis."

The king felt like tearing up his own hair hearing this, seeing it as shameless day robbery which it pretty much is. But the king saw the nobility turning to him in agreement with the hero.

The king knew that doing that would weaken the Royal Family own resources but not doing it would make the mobility doubt the commitment of the Royal Family into saving this world.

With the decision made, the Four Heroes and their Party members, or lack of in the Sword Hero's case, got escorted out by one of the Palace Maids. Said Maid also received a notice from one of the Guards to bring them to the royal Armoury after giving them their pre-determined funds. Said funds had been given to them just after they'd left, although there had been a noticeable hesitation when granting the Shield Hero the prepared money, though it had been ignored for the time being as the Maid guided them through the corridors.

Whilst this happened, Kodoku wondered what he should do next after this, if he were to get some bulky armour from this place with some decent stats, then he could probably find a Tailor shop or something similar to re-outfit himself with something dark, brooding and mysterious. He much preferred something akin to that than his current apparel at least, plus if he had to go around wearing such... eye catching gear like golden armour and flashy looing sword which may as well be a toothpick (well, he'd tested his own sword and it was NOT like that in the slightest, thankfully), then he would rather have gone without this little unexpected boon.

Meanwhile, the Shield and Spear Heroes gleefully talked with one another, much to the annoyance of guards passing by, whilst a few Maids gave the Spear Hero disapproving looks. Looks which came from his little 'display' in the morning due to his drunken stupor,. though these looks got ignored as Ouki had been too focused on his conversation with Naofumi to care. Though, he DID make sure to note who looked annoyed and who didn't as to concern who had the greater prejudice in them. He'd see for himself if these guys could be trustworthy or not, as well as gain an overview of the competency these Guards could have.

As for the Bow Hero, he just stayed being under the praise and flattery most of the Guards and Maids gave him, unaware of their underlying intentions.

* * *

Finally, the group managed to arrive at the Armour, the Maid having to request access and having to give a paper notice to the Guards that confirmed her claims.

Whilst this happened, the Maid then turned to look at them, promptly proceeding to explain about the Armoury before them. "This Armoury serves as the largest within our Country's Arsenal, and has a high amount of top quality items that were seen necessary to be kept stored away here in case of dire emergencies. A lot of these came from the previous Wave attacks which had happened close to this Capital, hence why they had been stored here." She explained, one hand over her crotch area as she held the other out as if holding a silver platter with it like a butler, gesturing to the door behind her.

'Sounds more like Royalty's Greed talking to me...' Kodoku thought, mild irritation seeping into his being whilst Ouki had NO problem showcasing how much he disapproved of this conduct. After all, these items could have been used to empower the various Soldiers and military assets, but instead they were left in this place to rot without seeing proper usage.

A massive waste of resources which caused more doubt on the King in Ouki and Kodoku than ever before. Heck, even Naofumi had his doubts now.

Not long later, they opened the doors after a couple minutes and let them inside. The moment that they did so...

"Huh, quite the setup we got here..." Ouki commented as he surveyed everything around him. According to traditional European castle design, it looked to be fairly standard... though since it resided in a Royal Castle, there were obviously WAY more Weapon/Armour racks than in the standard Castle. The racks all ran alongside the edges of the rectangular shaped room, with some looking the racks one would hang coats on displaying all sorts of exotic armours. The moment that the Heroes inside approached one, a seemingly holographic screen appeared in front of them, surprising each Hero. "Huh...?"

Seeing their confusion, the Maid lowered her head briefly before proceeding to explain. "In order for these items to be used, brave Heroes, they have their own requirements that must be met. As Heroes, you should be able to recognize such things with but a glance." she explained briefly, before stepping outside. "I will be waiting for you outside, as Maids are generally not allowed near the Armoury. Once you have selected your tools, please meet me outside and I will escort you to the Capital." she declared as she passed through the doors again, the Guards closing it behind her.

Once that was done, Kodoku looked around, searching with his gaze alone for any equipment of interest. 'Hmmm... A lot of this stuff seems to run on a levelling system like in those Net games I played, which likely means that I'll likely be unable to use a lot of them...' he thought, looking at some of the equipment and reading their 'info screens' as he would dub them. As he had figured, each of them required considerable levels and stats to be equipped properly and to be usable, therefore he didn't have them as part of his options.

One time he DID try to take out a hammer to test it out, but the moment he grabbed it the teen hissed under his breath when an electric shock ran through him, making him abruptly release the shaft before he could even lift it. Looked like he couldn't use anything that wasn't a sword type then, he concluded after experimenting and seeing how he could only pick up swords and no other weapon types.

A while later, he almost felt like giving up, as most of the Armour and Swords here weren't all that good and he doubted the King would be too pleased about using these as materials for his Sword. However, his gaze then briefly caught something out the left corner of his vision, something long, dark and JUST THE TYPE OF CLOTHING HE'D BEEN LOOKING FOR. His eyes widened as a light gasp escaped him whilst walking on over to it, a rack situated close to the bac of the room. 'What the... hell?' he wondered, stopping and examining the clothing he'd spotted.

The clothing itself hung atop a rack like the other Armours, however there was a distinct difference between them: this had a predominately BLACK colour scheme, his favourite colour actually. The clothing consisted of a black long coat which reached past his ankles, with some black fitting pants and matching coloured Dress Shoes. Of course under the coat he spotted a white dress shirt, but if he completely closed it up then he would look like a black figure when looked from a distance, and THAT would be more than acceptable. There was also a white Cravat too.

An info screen appeared before him, with the following words:

* * *

_Rashomon Gear_  
_Level 1_  
_Info: a set of clothes from a Shadow Demon's hide._  
_Attack: +10_  
_Defence: +10_  
_Speed: +10_  
_Agility: +10_  
_Endurance: +10_  
_Future Perks: only visible 10 minutes after being equipped._

* * *

There wasn't much else, but it quickly drew his interest. 'Hmmm... a set of clothing with stats and levels too, could that mean that it can increase in levels? Interesting, and it fits my style too. I'll take it then, everything else will be worthless to me.' Kodoku thought, immediately grasping the outfit. The previous screen vanished upon doing so, and a new one asking if he would like to equip the gear appeared in its place, of which he pressed the 'YES' option. Thus, the entire outfit proceeded to morph into this black light with a crimson coloured outline, that then latched onto and wrapped around his body. Upon completing this task, Kodoku saw his outfit be replaced by what he had seen before, the revelation drawing a whistle out of him as he smirked eagerly, his Sword sheathed on his hip. 'Heh, good to be in uniform...' he thought happily.

As for Ouki, he gazed at the many items and saw how any good armor he felt interested about was beyond what he could actually use for now. Not that he got stressed much over it as he just moved to the armor he liked most and put it straight into his inventory. Seeing his actions the bow and shield heroes, that before were having the same trouble and thinking on what to do did just the same. Getting satisfied with his choice Ouki went ahead to the weapon's selections and copied all spear and similar types of weapon. Some did not quite work as the system did not recognize them as weapons but he still got 47 unique spears with some being extremely powerful. His stats from just that risen by more that 10 times, part because the stats the spears gave and part because of the simple fact his original stats were ridiculously weak.

Finishing this Ouki went to the section were monster parts, ores, and herbs were located and started his shameless plunder.

"Ouki, aren't you taking a bit too much?" Naofumi asked in doubt seeing his new friend's actions.

"I have to agree with Naofumi, your actions are certainly a bit much." Itsuki said.

"Think of it this way, the king doesn't seem the type that would let us come back here after we came here once so you can either be a good little boy and fall behind, OR you can come and get a greater head start. I sure as hell prefer a head start, I asked around town and just the equipment for three knights is what the king was going to pay us to save his world. He have more that 9000 knights so why shouldn't we get more?" Ouki said, making both Naofumi and Itsuki look at one another, nod to each other, and start the plunder without hesitation.

Kudoku looked at this and felt like sighing, seeing the 'heroes' act more like common bandits was certainly quite weird. But, he was not dumb so he wasted no time in following the others and plunder the shit out of this place's accumulated resources.

* * *

After a while, Ouki and the other Three Heroes had what they needed and quickly left the Armoury, allowing the Maid to escort them to the Castle Gates... although they would SWEAR that they'd heard a furious roar belonging to an aged King later on.

Meh, must be something trivial, not like any of them gave a damn.

By the time they were at the gates, each of them had a brief conversation with one another before going their own separate ways with their respective party members. Well, Kodoku went alone, since he didn't let anyone join him on his travels.

Speaking of the Sword Hero, Kodoku journeyed through the Capital on his search for some reliable information sources, keeping his hands inside his new Coat Pockets whilst he did so. According to what he had heard when questioning some of the Guards and some Maids, apparently there was something called an Adventurer's Guild here in the Capital... or rather, an Adventurer's Guild for Melromarc to be more specific. They didn't give him too many details, much to his internal irritation since they apparently spent more time in the Castle then they did in the Capital, leaving him to ask for directions to the Guild Building itself so he could gather the necessary information.

'Tch, looks like this may be similar to some sort of RPG Game...' the male thought as he travelled, looking downwards slightly at the multiple screens in front of him. Each screen had been coloured black, with crimson ornamental designs around their boarders as well as white italic writing, not to mention any images that he could find resembled those from high quality photographers. He'd managed to figure out how to display them with his right hand, reminding him somewhat of an anime he had watched way back when about these kids stuck in a death VRMMO game where they had to clear up to 100 floors of bosses.

These revelations didn't sit too well with him, since he wasn't an expert in these types of things since he preferred games like Dark Souls, Devil May Cry etc. 'Its not a help that this sun is so damn irritating, either...' the male added, grimacing as he felt his skin reacting badly to the sunlight, hence he tried to stay in the shadow whilst he walked as much as possible... Which wasn't all the time. 'Here I thought that I'd be able to escape THAT side of me, but it seems I was getting my hopes up too much there...'

Yeah, there was a GOOD reason why he didn't leave the house much when he'd been a kid, let alone a nearly 20 year old, but that'll be for later.

One thing he didn't like about his outfit was the lack of a hood, but maybe he could find a suitable alternative somehow.

In any case, back to the system itself. Upon his experimenting, his System menus took the form of the following: the main menu took on the form of a list, one which had an image which looked to be a map of the entire Capital he found himself in (now wasn't THAT useful?). This map had various icons on it which seemed to display the important locations of which he had visited or had some knowledge of thanks to asking the Maids for info (he SWORE he'd heard several DING sounds during those chats too). There was an Icon of a pair of swords crossed together like an X for a blacksmith shop which he'd briefly visited, a half filled vial which seemed to be a potions shop, a glass which highlighted a Tavern, among many others. It seemed quite easy to tell which icon was for which shop/store too, hence how he managed to find Inns and stuff so easily.

Aside from that, the list itself had a list of icons on it going in a vertical line: A single upper body icon which, upon clicking, opened up a secondary smaller list of options like 'Status', 'Equip', 'Skills', 'Items'.

The first seemed to open a set of three screens, one showing his Level, which was one, his total HP and MP reserves, as well as attack and defence points. Beneath this was a series of icons which he believed were elements, with there being attack and defence percentages that Kodoku theorized were what he could currently use offensively and had defence against.

The second showed various equipment slots, the Legendary Sword being in his 'Main' slot. In the 'Armour' Slot, was his 'Rashomon Gear', with the 'ring', 'Necklace', and 'Amulet' slots empty, which made sense since he didn't have any trinkets which he could use, and if his hunch was right then Kodoku could equip these accessories on top of his Armour in these slots to boost his attributes, which the first screen would show.

Finally, and the most intriguing by far, was the third screen... which only showed a single sword icon with a title of '1-Hand sword' with a skill level slot beneath it and a number 0.

'Hmmm, how curious...' The lone teen had thought before closing the triple screens by scraping left with his right hand. Seemed pretty generic for an RPG kind of game, he felt despite having played few of those.

Afterwards, he opened the 'equip' list in the same way as the 'status' icon, only to display two of the three screens from earlier along with one new one: the one showing his status as well as the various equipped equipment, but then the third screen showed a series of icons that he didn't recognize. 'Interesting... it appears that there's factors that affect my Status in this world...' he thought once he clicked on a hidden icon and found a list of various 'effects' along with various 'resistances'. Looked like he would have to watch out for any of these, cause in his experiences as a Solo Player, even the slightest decrease in stats due to debuffs could prove fatal especially on Dungeon Raids depending on the competency of those involved.

Upon closing this section and opening the 'Skills', Kodoku found what looked to be a Screen opening up with a note-pad like design to it, showing 1 heading with it being '1-Hand Sword' with nothing beneath it. 'Hmmm... if I were to guess, given the name of the section and this format, that it would seem I have only my one handed sword style, but no actual Skills like in RPG's, which would likely mean I would have to use my Sword blindly for a while until I level-up enough to gain Skills that can be used with this style. I think this is what's happening here, but I can't be too sure.' He thought, closing the screen and opening the next one.

Turned out this one was his 'Items' section, although Kodoku realized later that it was simply an inventory. Although, what he didn't see coming was how it seemed to split into multiple columns on the same screen like with his Skills, with there being two columns so far: 'Material' and 'Consumable'. Just by guessing from their names, he figured that the former was for items that could be used for crafting things whilst the latter was for things like potions and the like. 'Although, I'm a bit troubled by this 100 item limit thing I see... seems to be related to some sort of weight system, maybe? Also, does it register the items without splitting them up, or is it saying 100 for each column? Nonetheless, I'll need some items to experiment with before I can answer that one.' Kodoku thought, closing the Items section as well as the secondary list by clicking on the primary Icon again.

Afterwards, he checked the other two and, aside from the second one which seemed to involve Party Members (he'll look into that one later, it wasn't important for him right now) the last icon on the primary menu seemed to be revolving around Quests... although that one had its own worries to it. For one, it only displayed things like Side and Extra Quests in the same format as his Skills and Inventory sections, with no mention of Main Ones which puzzled the male. Why include Side and Extra Quests and not the Main ones? Was that something to do with him not having much of a Goal or purpose here? Or was it something else? Not to mention, what was the difference between Side and Extra quests?

In the end, Kodoku concluded the following: in order to properly understand this system, he needed to get some live experience, and if he were to do that then he'd need info on where he could grind for levels. That meant he had to find the Guild, so he simply resumed his search.

* * *

Whilst he wandered the Capital city, Kodoku made sure to keep his ears open for any details that could prove useful... some bits he had heard were rumours of the various 'exploits' done by a certain member of the royal family, although they were hushed in a rather panicked manner if even the slightest suspicion of being overheard was felt.

By the time that he managed to get to where he wanted to go, Kodoku felt VERY unhappy, his mood reflected in the dark gaze inside his eyes as he beheld the building that was supposed to be the Guild Building. Upon looking at it, he found it to be similar to a religious chapel in shape, with a similarly medieval design as all the other buildings in this Capital, which he figured made sense give the theme going on here. However, one difference between this and an ordinary chapel was that he couldn't see any signs of... religious presence, something which Kodoku found himself thankful for. He wasn't a very religious person, an atheist was what people could call him.

Now that he was here though, it felt time to get some damn answers about this place... and judge whether or not this town would live past the next wave.

* * *

Entering the Guild, Kodoku soon found himself looking at a large, tavern like area, with multiple floors and multiple rows of tables lined up vertically. Everything inside seemed to be quite wooden too, with loads of people mingling about whilst going through their daily business. Adventurers, Guild Staff, etc. It actually reminded Kodoku of an anime where this pink haired guy was searching for his draconian father, so he joined a Guild with a Guild Hall which had an interior that looked just like this. 'Quite a bustling establishment, indeed...' the male thought, resisting the urge to groan as he proceeded to make his way to what he thought was the help desk, at the very back of the room.

Upon stopping in front of it, the Clerk there looked up from doing some paperwork, that clerk being a young looking man in his mid twenties. "Ah, hello sir, how may I help you today?" he asked with a smile... although it wasn't a true smile, Kodoku noticed. It was a smile referred to as a 'business smile', a smile practiced by people who worked in retail and were meant to serve customers of all types, no matter how rowdy they got.

"I'm looking for information about the Guild. Do you have anything like a leaflet, book or something?"

"None of that is here sir, but if you would like, I can answer any questions you may have..."

Thus, Kodoku began an almost interrogation-like session with the Guild Clerk, allowing him to learn more about this 'Guild'... and finally achieved the answers he sought.

According to him, there apparently more than one Guild, as guilds were prevalent throughout the world and played an important part in everyday life. There were unions of trade that maintain and facilitated the flow of goods and services throughout society, whilst each guild occupied its own unique niche in their specific Country's economy. All guilds were each led by a Guildmaster, whose main job was to maintain and supervise the internal and external operations of the Guild. Guilds can be formed by a wide variety of professional associations, ranging from the likes of merchants to adventurers, hence the one Kodoku was at right now turned out to be one for Adventurers. Part of him wondered if there was one for Information Brokers too, but didn't say anything about such things for the time being.

Furthermore, to accurately define the term 'Guild' (since Kodoku didn't play too many Net Games, he wasn't overly familiar with the term and its concepts), Guilds were an association of players that have banded together for specific purposes. This involves, levelling up, conquering dungeons, participating special events and even challenging other Guilds. In terms of establishing a new Guild, there were these 'invitation scrolls' that can be made and sent to players who wanted to make a specific Guild. In order to form a guild, they must first partake on a single quest, there being 8 types of missions to choose from, but only one needed to be perfectly completed, and once its complete the person was awarded the Invite Scroll. When opening the scroll, normal people seemed to fill in a form within it with the form giving them instructions on how to form the Guild proper.

Kodoku wasn't sure on if this would apply to the Legendary Heroes though, since they weren't like normal people as far as he could tell...

Back to the topic.

Upon creating the guild, the new Guildmaster needs to make enough invitation scrolls for their required number of members joining it. Guild Bases actually seemed to be built by conquering Dungeons and turning them into their own bases, something which Kodoku bet that drunk would ESPECIALLY like to do, given his personality and how he handled things so far.

When the clerk had finished explaining this, Kodoku mulled it over in his mind, running through it multiple times in order to burn the info into his brain so he didn't forget it. It seemed like a fairly decent system, as well as a complex one that seemed to run independently from the Kingdom itself which Kodoku found as another plus in his book, since he could see Ouki actually rejoicing in that he could make his own Guild without having that King breathing down his neck. Part of him actually wondered if he should shared this information with the guy, cause if anything watching him badmouth the royalty in this world felt OH so fun to watch... as long as he didn't try to recruit him though.

In addition, according to the Clerk there were MANY Guilds out there, like Mercenary Guilds, AKA adventurer Guilds which he could see since Adventurers literally were like mercenaries, Information Guilds which specialize in gathering information (something which he felt PARTICULARLY useful and wanted to find as soon as possible) and many others.

But, a few times the Clerk had mentioned Guildmasters as if they were some sort of classification, and not just a job or something, so he queried about that and found that there were things called Job Classes in this world too. With his curiosity piqued, Kodoku queried him about that, and learned that there were over 2000 basic and advanced job classes. Each class seemed to have their own requirements to unlock, but they also had their own categories assigned to them, like warrior-based classes, Magic-based classes, Production-based classes etc. Compared to heteromorphs and demi-humans, humanoids apparently gained all of their strengths from job classes and skills.

On the other hand, there were three different 'ranks' of job classes that defined their ability to be levelled up, usually ranked between base, high and rare. Base job classes could be leveled up to 15, high classes could be leveled up to 10, and rare classes could only be leveled up to 5 at max. In fact, some powerful classes could be unlocked by butchering some heteromorphic beings, though Kodoku didn't feel like butchering innocent civilians to obtain such things. For each and every class obtained, different spells existed. Having levels in specific classes and their respective skills can also benefit the users in ways that enhanced their specialization of spells or summoning. When users levelled up along with their chosen class, they could choose three new spells from the class' spell list each time. Kodoku ESPECIALLY liked this since he could imagine him being a mix of survivor/warrior with specialties in living off the land so he didn't have to worry about going to cities all the damn time.

All in all... a fairly detailed system going on here... Kodoku doubted the King had any hand in developing it.

* * *

As for the others, Naofumi went his way with Myne and Itsuki went with his party while happily talking about justice. One of them in special was making Itsuki feel quite attracted to, both due to being a female of about the same age as him and because of her love for JUSTICE.

"So, Seryu-san, you were already working on the guards despite being so young?" Itsuki asked the orange haired girl who nodded happily.

"Yep, my father worked on it before me and I decided to follow in his footsteps, helping serve JUSTICE to all." She said with a huge smile that made Itsuki smile back. The poor bow hero not realizing that he was getting too friendly with a girl that, in most other worlds, would be classified as mentally insane. But hey, they were getting along great.

And finally, Ouki was moving with a destination in mind.

"Mister Spear Hero, are you sure we should be coming here?" A shy voice from the side asked. Ouki turned and looked at the person speaking, it was the only female currently in his party, Rino.

"Oh, don't worry. I thought about some matters and I am quite confident things are gonna get hairy soon. I know about the slave seals, so I must worry if someone put them on any of you or perhaps they find a way to put them on me." Ouki said.

Another of his companions spoke up while adjusting his glasses.

"A wise assumption. While a bit paranoic the decision to cut a possible source of future trouble before it happens is commendable." One of the Party members, the spectacle mage Shiroe, said. He originally felt no desire to help the any of the heroes but he felt like the spear hero was much more interesting than he expected as he reminded him of some of his old friends.

As for the bow user, he nodded his head even if he didn't speak any. He was not sure exactly what he was to do but as a noble, even if a very minor one, he felt obliged to come and help the heroes in any way he could. The choice for the spear hero being simply because he felt like he could work better with either the shield or the spear heroes but he knows of how the people see the shield hero. Personally he has nothing against the shield hero, he would not judge the man without knowing him, but he knows how influent the church of the three heroes are and he doesn't want it to aim at Alsace, his lands, because of this. Thus Tigrevurmund Vorn now followed the Spear Hero.

Ouki had talked with these three before anything else after leaving the castle and now he moved to his destination.

* * *

Ouki entered the tent he was looking for, a short man wearing clothes more suited for a circus master appeared in front of him quickly enough. His crooked smile being enough to raise the hairs on the back of most people's necks, but not Ouki.

He has dealt with worse before.

"Hello, hello. What would you like from me, my good sir?" The slave trader asked and Ouki looked at the selection of beasts. The front of the shop was still a beast trading company and he wanted something specific.

"Can you find me three Griffin eggs? The best ones possible, no need to worry about the price overly much." Ouki said and one could swear that they could see the trader's eyes shining with money signs in them.

Quickly enough he returned with his best eggs, the total value being 30 golden coins, 10 for each of the eggs.

It was quite pricey, but Ouki didn't mind it right now.

"A question, but do you have much on the way of trash in this place?"

"Dearest costumer, while I do have some I don't know why you would ask me about-"

"What if I take care of all of it for you in exchange for a discount of one gold coin? It not, you could sell me one or two of your cheaper slaves as compensation." Ouki proposed.

"... I am not sure if this would be that fine a deal, I would be taking quite the loss here." The slave trader said.

"Please, don't worry too much about losses now. If I take care of all the trash your wares would be healthier, making it where you can sell them for more and you can keep them for longer without them dying so quickly. And about the slaves, they can be close to death as what I want is not really the slaves. It is to set them free." Ouki said, making the Slave Trader looked at him confusedly.

"Set them free? But why would you buy a slave to set them free?" He asked and Ouki had to hide away a smile, a dangerous smile. If his idea was right then this just might save him a whole lot of problems in the future, and it would certainly be quite entertaining to see.

"I have my reasons. So? What do you say? Do we have a deal?"

"... Fine, we do. It is nice doing business with you." The Slave Trader said, not knowing he just unknowingly set out an event that would shake the foundations of this entire country at this very moment.

* * *

**Chapter End **

**Here you go, the second chapter. Sorry it took so long, me and KC are quite busy on our side of things, plus working on other stories takes away some time too. Though I'll thank those that faved, followed, and left a review since it made me want to continue this story further. To start though, I'll have to explain a few things.**

**One, Kodoku's game interface/system. Now, This system comes from a game I played a while back called SAO: Lost Song. Just look for it on youtube if you didn't get the exposition about it (I did make a few slight changes to it from its original counterpart). There's still a few kinks I want to develop further, but in the end there's a reason why this system was made for Kodoku instead of the default proficiency one that Ren used, and whilst I won't say what it is, I will say its due to the guy's personality or rather a specific trait. Sorry if it confuses anyone. **

**Though, if anyone wonders, yes this IS using the Guild System from Overlord, or to be more specific the system it used before papa bone daddy got transported. A rather complex system sure, but also one with a large amount of opportunities. If you've read the Novels (I haven't if anyone is curious), then you should be aware of how diverse this system is. Though, the fact that KODOKU of all people found this information out before anyone else did is interesting in and of itself since one would expect a Guildmaster (wink, wink) to want to know how to develop a Guild here... either that, or he already had something in mind from the start, that Ouki.**

**As for Ouki, He's well on his way in developing his own plans too. What those are, we'll have to wait and see. **

**Whelp, hope you all liked, let me know what you all thought and see you next chapter.**

**Peace Out!**


End file.
